The present invention relates to an automatic disc playback apparatus or a disc player. Various kinds of automatic disc playback apparatuses have been conventionally employed as means for continuous playback of a plurality of discs. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 4-205755, published in 1992, discloses a base tray. A plurality of sub trays, each mounting a disc, are stacked on this base tray.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a conventional disc player disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 4-205755. FIG. 9 is a plan view illustrating a disc loading operation of the conventional disc player.
As shown in FIG. 8, a disc player 100 has a boxlike player housing 101. A rectangular opening 101a1 is provided on a front face 110a of the player housing 101. A base tray 102 is coupled or engaged in the opening 101a. The base tray 102 is slidable between an external position where the base tray 102 is positioned outside the player housing 101 and a standby position where the base tray 102 is lodged inside the player housing 101.
A plurality of sub trays 103, each mounting a disc D, are stacked on the base tray 102 in an up-and-down direction. Among the plurality of sub trays 103, a desired sub tray 103 is shiftable with respect to the base tray 102. The desired sub tray 103 can thus be transported to the standby position and to a later-described playback position.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9, the above-described disc player 100 comprises a pair of sub tray holders 104 and 105 supporting the right and left sides of the sub tray 103 positioned at the standby position and displaceable in accordance with a pulling motion of the base tray 102 advancing to the external position. A sub tray standby position engaging mechanism and sub tray selecting mechanism 106 is provided to position the desired sub tray 103 at the standby position.
The sub tray 103 mounts the disc D. In one mode, the sub tray 103 advances to the external position together with the base tray 102. In another mode, the sub tray 103,is shifted from the external position to the inside of the player housing 101 and stays at the standby position in the player housing 101. The sub tray holders 104, 105, the sub tray standby position engaging mechanism and sub tray selecting mechanism 106 are cooperative to position the sub tray 103 in the above-described manner. Furthermore, in a still another mode, the sub tray 103 is shifted from the standby position to the playback position.
However, according to the above-described conventional disc player 100, there is a necessity of providing complicated mechanisms for selecting the desired sub tray 103 from the plurality of sub trays 103 stacked on the base tray 102. More specifically, all of the above-described sub tray holders 104 and 105 and the sub tray standby position engaging mechanism and sub tray selecting mechanism 106 are complicated in their constructions. Therefore, a simple mechanism performing the same function is earnestly needed.
Furthermore, according to the above-described conventional disc player 100, the base tray 102 comprises a pair of finger holes 102a and 102a opened at the right and left sides of the front end thereof as shown in FIG. 9. With this arrangement, an operator is allowed to insert fingers into the finger holes 102a and 102a to hold or pinch the outer periphery of the disc D. However, this arrangement is disadvantageous in that the disc D placed on the lowermost sub tray 103 is difficult to hold, because the operator is forced to insert his/her fingers deeply into the finger holes 102a and 102a.